Search Eminism.org

  • Enter search term(s):

Subscribe

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

Memo: Data from FBI’s Innocence Lost Initiative and Operation Cross Country

Date: April 24, 2011

So I was reading up on FBI’s Innocence Lost Initiative and “Operation Cross Country”–somewhat periodic nationwide sting operation targeting prostitution (well the goal is to target commercial sexual exploitation of minors, but a lot of adult prostitutes get caught up in it) in preparation for (you may have guessed it) my upcoming sine about the fraud that is the U.S. anti-trafficking movement. FBI does not publicly release all its data, so it’s hard to understand the full impact of these sting operations.

Below, you will see information about each of these nationwide stings that I can gather form FBI’s own celebratory press releases. I put the data into a table for my own convenience, and I thought I’d share with my readers just in case someone is interested. Data correspond to results of Operation Cross Country I thru V, plus a precursor to Operation Cross Country (labeled “0”).

Spotty Data from FBI’s Operation Cross Country sweeps
Source: FBI press releases

  Date City Rescues Arrests Rescues TD Convictions TD
0 12/16/2005 14 30 19   67
1 6/25/2008 16 21 389 433 308
2 10/27/2008 29 49 642 (73 pimps, 518 pros) 577 365
3 2/23/2009 29 48 571 670  
4 10/26/2009 36 52 700 (60 pimps) 900 510
5 11/8/2010 40 69 885 (99 pimps) 1200 625

Date = Date the operation was announced in a press release. Typically, the stings take place during the 72 hours before the announcement.
City = Number of cities in which stings took place.
Rescues = Number of minors FBI claims to have “rescued.”
Arrests = Number of arrests made. This may include adult prostitutes, clients, as well as pimps (FBI doesn’t fully disclose the breakdown).
Rescues TD = Number of minors FBI claims to have “rescued” to date since Innocence Lost Initiative began.
Convictions TD = Number of convictions FBI claims have resulted from Innocence Lost Initiative.

Some comments:

1) If OCC II is any indication, the nationwide sweep affects adult prostitutes in far greater numbers compared to youth on the street, johns/clients, or pimps (642 total minus 73 pimps and 518 pros leaves 51 arrests unaccounted, which I assume are johns).

2) On average, OCC results in the “rescue” of one or two minors in each city where stings are conducted. Sure, that may be “one too many,” but it doesn’t strike me as an evidence for a shockingly large epidemic. Anti-trafficking groups would have us believe that there are hundreds of thousands of teenagers being exploited in the sex trade, but these stings either casts serious doubt in their claim, or FBI and local law enforcement officials are totally incompetent.

3) I’m having difficulty believing that 73 pimps were arrested for trafficking 49 minors, or 60 pimps for 52 minors, or 99 pimps for 69 minors. Are they counting pimps who control adult prostitutes? Or are they labeling friends and family members of trafficking victims as “pimps” automatically–as the legal definition of pimping includes anyone who benefit from the earning of prostitution, even if they are not the traffickers? More disclosure would help me understand this data.

4) In fact, more data overall would be helpful, for example: breakdown of arrests (youth/adult, worker/client/pimp), and what happened to each group of people after their arrest. How many “pimps” are actually minors also? How many people are arrested on drug and other charges during the sweep–which often police officers do to coerce women to testify? How many of the convictions are for pimping and trafficking, compared to johns? (FBI boasts “these convictions have resulted in lengthy sentences, including multiple 25-year-to-life sentences”–the choice of the word “multiple” leads me to think that they probably have perhaps two or three such victories…)

Does anyone know if it’s possible to obtain more detailed data, including all the above plus the breakdown of different cities? Is there any researcher (i.e. someone who has more professional credibility than I do) interested in submitting a FBI records request (and share the result with me)? Now’s the time to take advantage of your class and social status privilege!

2 Comments »

  1. Without a doubt, analysis of news reports makes it clear that the vast majority of arrests in Operation Cross Country are of adult females for selling sex (or offering to sell sex). Those are local/state charges, not federal. It’s not surprising considering the approach law enforcement uses – seeking out internet-based advertising that feature words or pictures hyping the youth of the escort. As if no one else had reason to say they were younger to attract clients.

    And yes, the FBI makes arrests of people they believe are pimping adults as well. Both federal and state law enforcement have been able to make trafficking cases against those who coerce, deceive or force adults into prostitution. I suspect another reason for the high number of arrests for pimping offenses has to do with the tactic to arrest the “bottom” as well as the pimp. I know here in Wisconsin they often arrest (and convict) the woman who does the rule enforcing, collecting money, recruiting, training and supervising of the others. Sometimes I think they charge the “bottom” in hopes that they will turn state’s evidence and testify against the pimp, but lately I’ve been seeing them do it out of principle and someone can only hope to avoid a longer sentence if they testify. And they are charged with the same trafficking or pimping offenses.

    I have a great many questions myself and try to do research on my own too. This report might be helpful: http://www.urban.org/publications/411813.html.

    Comment by Claudine O'Leary — April 25, 2011 @ 3:41 pm

  2. […] 2 Other Myths and Misinformations 2.0 “Pornland” and other problems with Operation Cross Country 2.1: World Cup, Super Bowl, and the Olympics: an international panic 2.2: The censorship of […]

    Pingback by Eminism.org » War on Terror & War on Trafficking – A New Zine Released! — May 24, 2011 @ 12:02 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply